New Lower Highland Project: Galvanize 2.0

Let’s stay on Platte Street to look at another new infill project! Galvanize, currently located in the Rocky Mountain Note building in the Golden Triangle neighborhood, has been very successful and will be expanding their operations into the Central Platte Valley. Similar to Shift Workspaces, Galvanize is a shared co-working center made for start-ups and small businesses. In these work-spaces, you would have the ability to rent a seat, station, or small office which is, once again, great for start-ups and newly established businesses. Now for the infill! Galvanize 2.0 will be situated on the southeast side of Platte between 16th and 17th. Here is a map with the site outlined.

Galvanize 2.0 will contain 60,000 square feet of co-working space rising 5-stories and since Platte Street is a retail corridor, the ground floor of Galvanize 2.0 will be dedicated to retail. Below are some conceptual renderings thanks to Open Studio | Architecture. These are not the final designs of the building but we can expect a modern glass and brick building.

Currently there is a 2-story brick building on the site which will be demolished to make way for Galvanize 2.0. I really wish they could have found a way to incorporate this neat little building into the development!

Construction is expected to start later this year with completion around Fall 2014.

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16 Comments

Although any development is good development, why don’t the latest projects require existing buildings to be demolished in order to build rather than actually in filling in vacant land or parking lots? There’s still plenty of them!

I believe they are keeping the taller part of the brick façade – which will be the 4 column brick portion of the new building…by keeping a certain % of the old building, it eases some of the approval process and probably reduces their parking requirement completely (though they may opt to add parking at the back maybe?)

What would be really nice if they did not put parking in the back. There are buildings fronting right on the river and none of them engage it except for REI. Let’s extend that plaza/path all the way from 15th to almost 20th. Maybe place some restaurant patio seating to help activate the space.

I just re-read Ken’s excellent December 12, 2010 “Down By The River” post, focusing on how the South Platte River figures into the whole Downtown auto/rail/trail/river scene. Jerry G, you’ve got an important point: Putting surface parking lots (which we all hate) along the riverfront is so wrong! What’s being built along the banks of the Platte — where our city began — is critical to whether the river flows through an emerging urban park, or continues as the much-ignored resource that it’s been for more than a hundred years.

The story of Los Angeles and it’s namesake river, where I currently live and work, is remarkably parallel to Denver’s river history. Both arid cities receive the same average rainfall, about 14-and-a-half inches a year. Both the Platte and LA Rivers had raging floods — one so huge, it drastically changed the course of the Los Angeles, about a hundred years ago. Thus, the ugly — but necessary — concrete channeling of the LA River, just like much of the Platte. Upstream, in the San Fernando Valley, the Catch Basin functions much like Chatsfield Reservoir, for flood control.

Downstream a few miles, are Downtown LA and Downtown Denver — where both cities were first settled, along the banks of their rivers. Both rivers flow out of mountain chains, the picture postcard backdrops of both cities’ downtown skylines.

But where the LA River disappears into one of the world’s largest shipping harbors on the planet’s biggest ocean, the Platte feeds the High Plains, the Oglala Aquifer, the Missouri, the Mississippi, and the North American bread basket. Water for farms and food, not drainage.

Both rivers course through industrial zones, both are flanked by rail lines and freeways, the 5 and the 25. Both have been sadly neglected dumping grounds, ignored by “progress.”

But in Downtown Los Angeles, the river is simply ignored, a flood drainage channel, at best an “infrastructure” element for civil engineers. In Downtown Denver, the Platte’s being recognized as a core urban resource, with parks and trails, instead of a place to ignore — or cover with graffiti — a place to be.

Jerry G and all, let’s keep asking for more riverfront plazas and cafes, places for people and picture-taking and walking, rather than parking lots. Especially along Platte Street.

well said..we need activity on the river! it might not be massive but it’s still such a great asset that is underused…I’m certainly not advocating for parking lots along the platte, just taking a guess at their dev plan.

Very elegant modern facade on this building. It will be a nice addition. Assuming that the brick part is the old brick building, I wonder why they didn’t keep the arch top of the brick facade? Nice to see that the mismatched brick bases will be removed though. And, I agree on all the comments about making the Platte riverfront more lively without any parking along it. Parking lots kill the life of anything they touch.

Maybe this will be what the area needs to build residential on the parking behind Galvanize that fronts the river. I agree, extending the brick pathway by REI north across 15th would be great, and activating it with some cafes and outdoor seating. It’s a shame there is just a dirt path behind the Commons Park West apartments, and parking lots along the Platte north of the apartments.

Both of the buildings that you were are bemoaning were for sale for months, if not years. You could have stepped up and bought them if you felt that they were saving. Come up with a programming concept, secure financing, buy the building, refurbish, and repopulate. It’s a little more difficult than simple criticism, but it actually makes for something that is real and lasting.

You see a nice old brick building and claim that the replacement is unimaginative. The old building is a series of arches with a simple cornice on top. Is that rather unimaginative as well? It also appears that the interior of the structure is a renovation and the original interior was ripped out and re-purposed with a second floor. Just sickening that the old interior was ripped out and all that was left was the facade. Someone else should feel ashamed.

With the Empire Staples building now vacant, hopefully will be torn down soon and redeveloped. I am sure it wont take long since it is a terrific site. The existing brick building where Galvanize is being built is not worth saving.

I just posted an updated rendering on FB and some general building information. I have a few responses to the above comments as the Project Manager and would be happy to answer any questions. The current rendering should preclude “hideous” from project vocabulary – OSA doesn’t do ugly. Empire Staple is not vacant and actually doing very well with the uptick in construction. The interior of the building and foundation is in horrible shape and materials are saved and salvaged where possible – a personal priority of mine. We are working hard to bring westside Platte River improvements to the neighborhood and see riverfront activation as a project priority. The Platte is Denver’s greatest assett and we will do more than our share to bring public improvements to the area. Galvanize will activate much of the building and will be a great addition to Platte St.